Watch for OKRA to come in the mail!

SIBA’s Okra Picks are gaining traction with booksellers and publishers and we encourage you to order at least one copy of each and do a quick display, in-store and/or online, as these are the books that are getting the benefit of wide-reaching promotion across the south via the Okra Pick Cards, Lady Banks and across the nation with publisher support and SIBA’s active, far-reaching social networking. Your customers will be hearing about these books and looking to buy them. Make sure you have them on hand. And remember to nominate your upcoming favorite southern reads for the Okra Pick. Your authors will thank you, publishers will thank you, and SIBA thanks you, but most of all, your reading customers will thank YOU!
There is over $650 worth of value in the Okra Pick Box coming your way this week: Check the box to redeem your $50 in Co-op from SIBA. (And check out the details for the Billy Graham & Me Contest – a bookstore wins $500!) This box is only mailed to SIBA Core Members so make sure you are on the list here. And if you are not, join siba online here.

Sign Up for Code Read and SIBA will help you sell!

The first Code Read with 22 participating bookstores was deemed a success. We want to double the number of participating bookstores before the end of June. Our next Code Read is on July 2 for Susan Crandall’s Whistling Past the Graveyard. Sign the bookseller agreement and get it back to us before June 15th, and we will get you in the Code Read Circle. The first Code Read resulted in The Lee Bros. Charleston Kitchen by Ted & Matt Lee appearing on SIBA’s bestseller list for seven weeks and counting. And we have learned a few things in the process that will enhance the program going forward. Get on the Code Read(ing) Train with us!

Sign up for #SIBA13 TODAY!

#SIBA13 is just around the corner and in New Orleans for the first time in SIBA history, so get September 20-22, 2013 on your Events Calendar because it will be the biggest event of the fall and you and your employees should not miss it. ABA will be holding a IndieCommerce Institute the Thursday before the show. Book Industry Charitable Foundation will be hosting a Fun-Raiser on Thursday evening. Elizabeth Gilbert, Stephanie Evanovich, Kat Falls, Elizabeth Gilbert, Joshilyn Jackson, Sena Jeter Naslund, Amy Tan, and Jude Watson are confirmed, and many more authors will be confirming before the end of the month. We will have a wealth of education from Edelweiss to Common Core, Scoring Authors, and Gifts that Score. We will have a wealth of exhibitors offering show specials, new products, and new ideas. The Scavenger Hunt is back as is the $1000 Buyers Raffle. This will be the best SIBA show ever! Become of fan of SIBA on Facebook and follow #siba13 on Twitter to get the first reports of author confirmations.

The SIBA Book Award Story

Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk took him through A Land More Kind Than Home, down to The Cove where the Sea Changes, and A Million Suns Shine Shine Shine on its Fathomless waves, holding him in Thrall. His Descent led Down Bohicket Road towards his Permanent Camp overlooking The Accidental City, its buildings climbing the far slope to Stand Up That Mountain in the distance. It’s just a piece of Stray Decorum, he thought walking through the streets, dodging Pete the Cat and His Four Groovy Buttons as it swatted at the Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore, who no longer lived in the old apartment building on the corner but had left the critters to flutter about, nonetheless. He wandered past My Bookstore and walked into the Back in the Day Bakery, where a class on Mastering the Art of Southern Cooking was underway (you could tell by the smell of fried chicken). He thought, “I’m hungry,” as he and my sister and Pete all gathered Around the Southern Table, laden with heaping platters of ole Fred Thompson’s Southern Sides. Billy Lynn turned to my sister and said “I just want to Chomp on 34 Pieces of You.” And she smiled. “Wouldn’t that make me Three Times Lucky,” she said. I knew then I was Losing My Sister to him.

Win $1000!

Pull the book award finalists from your shelves and put them together to show your customers the favorites from last year among southern booksellers. Who will win in each category? We will announce winners on Independence Day, and at the SIBA Trade Show this year, we will be hosting a $1000 Display Contest: Create a table top display for one, more, or all of the SIBA Book Award Winners and recreate it on site at the SIBA trade show. Industry peers will vote for their favorites, and the winning display will receive $1000. This display contest is open to SIBA’s Core Members only. So display the books, get familiar and get your creative juices going. Here are a few winning displays for inspiration:

SIBA Industry Summit – Meeting of the Minds

These enthusiastic booksellers were excited to begin the first day of events in Nashville with generous sponsor Hachette Nashville and Inkreadible! Sponsor Baker & Taylor:

AND finally, take the time to download and read SIBA’s Bookseller Benefits Package. It will make you money, save you money, help you be a better bookseller, and connect you with other booksellers. SIBA wants to help!

It's all happening right now, because when it comes to improving your business, there's no time like the present.

Let’s Make a Deal at #SIBA12!

Register for the SIBA Trade Show today!

Seasoned booksellers: Lend your expertise to an emerging bookseller and SIBA will pay your way to the show!

SIBA wants to pay the way of seasoned booksellers (30 year or more veterans) to #SIBA12 in Naples, Florida. We'd cover travel, hotel stay, and include an all pass to all of the SIBA meal functions. And here's the rub: We want you to share your hotel room with a green bookseller (in business 5 years or less) from a different store. The point of this pairing is for your expertise and their enthusiasm to mashup into a SIBA weekend of sharing & shameless exchange.
If you have been a bookseller for 30 years or more and would be willing to take an all-expenses paid trip to the #SIBA12 show in return for lending your experience to the next bookselling generation, then email Wanda. This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Deadline is August 15!

Emerging booksellers: Make your SIBA show really count. Room with an experienced bookseller and learn from the best in the business!

If you have been in business for less than five years, then SIBA will match you up with someone who has been there, done that and you can work the show together, trading ideas and inspiration for wisdom and experience. Email Wanda if you are interested in participating, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Deadline is August 15!

Click here to register for the show: {[E-RSVP YES LINK:VWN2XTYYPHP]}!

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SIBA Bookseller Revival Scheduled in Greenville, SC! Can I get an AMEN?

Mark your calendar for Tuesday, July 24.

Fiction Addiction in Greenville, SC Tuesday, July 24 and learn from SIBA Board member Jill Hendrix how to monetize your store newsletter.
Enjoy lunch with author Sophie Hannah (The Other Woman's House) and many thanks to Penguin Books for sponsoring our author lunch.

10am – Noon: Your Store Newsletter Can Be a Profit CenterFiction Addiction regularly claims $500-1000/month in coop on their store email newsletter. This is money that goes directly to your bottom line. If you're not currently claiming newsletter coop or even sending out a newsletter, learn how to get started. For those already claiming coop, we will discuss tips and tricks we've learned to manage the process and ask you to share yours as well.

Noon – 1 – Lunch with Sophie HannahSophie Hannah is the author of seven internationally bestselling and award-winning psychological thrillers - Little Face, The Truth-Teller's Lie, The Wrong Mother, The Dead Lie Down, The Cradle in the Grave, The Other Woman's House, and Kind of Cruel (British title - not available in the US yet). Her novels are published in 20 countries, with more foreign rights deals under negotiation. The Dead Lie Down is currently shortlisted for a Barry Award. In 2004, Sophie won first prize in the Daphne Du Maurier Festival Short Story Competition for her suspense story, "The Octopus Nest". She has also published five collections of poetry in the UK. Her fifth, Pessimism for Beginners, was shortlisted for the 2007 TS Eliot Award. Ms. Hannah currently lives with her husband and children in Cambridge, England.

1-3pm – Booksellers explore a vision for SIBA’s future.

RSVP: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Host a workshop for writers in your store! McIntyre’s has had success with author Marjorie Hudson who has hosted numerous Writing Classes; and Flyleaf Books is hosting Pitchapalooza with authors Arielle Eckstut & David Henry Sterry.

Remember your indie presses. Check your stock to make sure you have your favorite indie titles on hand and feature them with a shelf talker or in a display.

Host a Book Club Giveaway Frenzy. I attended one of these at Fountain Bookstore recently and it was quite exciting. When hosting a paperback writer at Fountain, Kelly includes Book Club Giveaway Frenzy. Here she pitches upcoming titles and offers the galley to anyone in the audience who expresses interest. Believe it or not, I came away with a galley and purchased two books. If you buy a book, you get to pick a book off of the Book Club Giveaway Frenzy Shelf!

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Bookseller Benefits Package Updated

Check out the benefits of SIBA membership. The SIBA Bookseller Benefits package has been updated with current information for 2012.
The legend describes which programs are popular, which are easy, low-tech, and so much more.

Are you an ABA member? Been in business ten years? Store is at least 2,000 sq. ft.? Have a few really good friends?

To celebrate its 20th anniversary, The Bookstore Training Group of Paz & Associates will award a bookstore makeover to one deserving bookseller. The chosen bookstore will receive free store design and merchandising services, up to $2,000 in materials and services for enhancements, a copy of the Paz staff training video “Bookstore Merchandising Made Easy,” and on-site assistance to finalize the project.

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Classified: Fixed-Shelf Aframes for Sale

12 cases available for $75 each. Floor footprint is 48.5 inches wide by 32 inches deep. Cases are approx. 52 inches high and have 5 fixed shelves with a flat top. I also have add-on toppers that can give you a 6th shelf and a few endcap units that attach to the ends. Hardcovers will fit on the top fixed shelf and the add-on shelf but the other shelves will only fit premium or regular mass-markets. Cases are made of wood, stained golden peach. 3 have both ends finished. 4 have at least 1 finished end. The other ends are currently hidden in the middle of rows and so may or may not be finished. Pickup from Greenville, SC in late July. For more info, contact Jill Hendrix at Fiction Addiction, 864-675-0540, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

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Classified: Bookstore for sale

After deliberating for months on this issue, I have decided to put my bookstore up for sale. After 12 years, I know I will miss it deeply but it's time to at least explore the possibility of selling the store. I am not going anywhere and I am planning to continue to run my store to the very best of my ability while it's on the market.

Undercover Books is a very successful, much loved community bookstore in St. Croix, US Virgin Islands. Please send all inquiries to me via email at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Post the following on your Facebook page: CODE READ: You have exactly 5 hours to come in the store and say “CODE READ” for a 5% discount on your entire purchase. The clock is ticking. Spread the word and get here before (here place the time 5 hours from now).

Use your POS to tell you which customer spent the most money in your store last week. Pull a thank you card and fire off a hand-written note to that customer with a $5 gift card in it.

Switch out a display. Move books in the back to the front. Refresh a section pulling returns and changing what is face out.

Look over your upcoming events. Think about other businesses you could partner with to increase outreach. Invite the owner and a visiting author to a meal, or take your author to their business for a visit. Build these partnerships.

If you know the local winery or bakery or bike shop, ask them what books they’d like to see on the shelves and then make sure they know you have them.

Email your favorite photo of your store cat or dog or bird or spider to your local printer and ask them to print full color postcards, and then sell them to your customers. (Use these for #2)

Spend some time on your own website. Is it easy to buy a gift card? A book? Is it easy to find your location? To call or email your store?

Grab a post-it note and write some praises for the last book you read, stick it on the book and put it in the Staffs Picks section.

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SIBA Bookseller Revivals are Back! – Can I get an Amen?

Mark Your Calendar, June 21 & July 24...and watch for more to come.

SIBA is reviving the Bookseller Revivals--day-long workshops at independent bookstores where booksellers share experience and expertise, meet an author, and get re-energized. These are day-long gatherings directed at booksellers within a two hour drive of the host store. Leave home at 8am, revivals begin at 10am, include education, lunch, author meet & greet, and an opportunity to share your vision for SIBA’s future, and end at 3pm, putting you back home around 5pm. We currently are scheduling Bookseller Revivals in Richmond, Chapel Hill, Atlanta, Greenville, SC, and New Orleans.

June 21:

Come to Richmond, Virginia at The Fountain Bookstore, where Robert Goolrick (Heading Out to Wonderful) will be on hand to save some souls! Join bookseller & SIBA board member Kelly Justice and get revived and revved up for the last half of 2012. Thanks to our sponsor Algonquin for buying lunch and sponsoring the event.

Energize with Edelweiss: Use Just This One FREE Tool to Get Authors, Gain Customers, and Build Your Bottom Line
In this workshop, you will learn how to use Edelweiss, a free program offered by the makers of Above the Treeline, to:

Request authors from publicity departments

Find authors local to you that you didn't realize were there

Get free digital review copies for you and your staff

Learn about forthcoming books from your peers nationwide

Buy books more efficiently in less time

Make internal lists to assist with book fairs, repeated events, future reference

Create direct marketing materials to mail to customers in only minutes to increase sales

You think a computer program can't be sexy? It is when it can do this much for you AND it's free.
RSVP: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

July 24:

Make your way to Fiction Addiction in Greenville, SC Tuesday, July 24 and learn from SIBA Board member Jill Hendrix how to monetize your store newsletter. Sophie Hannah (The Other Woman's House) as special guest. Thanks to Penguin Books for sponsoring this revival.

Your Store Newsletter Can Be a Profit Center
Fiction Addiction regularly claims $500-1000/month in coop on their store email newsletter. This is money that goes directly to your bottom line. If you're not currently claiming newsletter coop or even sending out a newsletter, learn how to get started. For those already claiming coop, we will discuss tips and tricks we've learned to manage the process and ask you to share yours as well.
RSVP: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

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The Match Game: Let’s Make A Deal at #SIBA12 in Naples, Florida!

In Search of Seasoned Booksellers for FREE Trips to #SIBA12 Sept. 7-9.

The Match Game

SIBA wants to pay the way of seasoned booksellers (30 year or more veterans) to #SIBA12 in Naples, Florida. We'd cover travel, hotel stay, and include an all pass to all of the SIBA meal functions. And here's the rub: We want you to share your hotel room with a green bookseller (in business 5 years or less) from a different store. The point of this pairing is for your expertise and their enthusiasm to mashup into a SIBA weekend of sharing & shameless exchange.

If you have been a bookseller for 30 years or more and would be willing to take an all-expenses paid trip to the #SIBA12 show in return for lending your experience to the next bookselling generation, then This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

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Holiday Catalog Bookseller Recommendations Needed!

We need your recommendations. We are in touch with publishers now about the SIBA Holiday Catalog. Even though the winter holidays seem forever away, they will be here before we know it. You are the best test for what will sell and we need your input. We use your recommendations when approaching publishers. We want the holiday catalog to be the best sales tool around for your store. Together, we can insure the catalog’s success. Suggest a title today.

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This is Retail

A couple weeks ago SIBA asked the people on the SIBA Listserv what kind of education they'd like to see offered at the #SIBA12 show. One of the most common answers was a request for better information on trends in the retail industry. Why are Target and Bed Bath & Beyond changing they're display styles? What do they know that we don't? Where do we get information on how consumers shop?

To meet that request, SIBA has become a member of The National Retail Federation, which has an incredible number of resources available to its members. The NRF recently held a "This is Retail" video contest, inviting retailers to submit their stories about what they do and why they do it.

Malaprop's Bookstore/Café celebrates 30 Years of Independent Bookselling in June 2012!

During a time when many independent and chain bookstores are struggling, Malaprop's enters her fourth decade stronger than ever!

In 2000 Publishers Weekly awarded owner and founder Emoke B'Racz and Malaprop's Bookstore/Café Bookseller of the Year. Malaprop's was the first southern bookstore to be so honored.

Here are some of the ways Malaprop's is celebrating her 30th anniversary:

Publication by Malaprop's Burning Bush Press of Asheville of Naked Came the Leaf Peeper, a collaborative novel featuring 12 local authors. The collaborative novel has been featured in Salon, Publishers Weekly, Bookselling this Week, LA Times, AC-Times, Mountain Xpress and Rapid River and is a regional bestseller.

Publication by Burning Bush Press of Asheville of Remember Me as a Time of Day, a poetry anthology of local women poets edited by Emoke B'Racz, due out this summer.

Storewide sale on June 1st, 25% off most items

Anniversary party on June 30th, including an official proclamation to Emoke, read by Asheville City Council member Cecil Bothwell

Letterpress broadsides of two of Emoke's poems, printed and designed locally and distributed to friends of the store.

Twitter and facebook specials during the month of June!

Free advance reading copies of books with purchases over $30

Balloons, fun, and surprises to come. They're still working on what will happen. A giant banner commemorating the anniversary will miraculously appear on the store balcony between now and June 1st. Look for it!

Please contact Linda Barrett Knopp (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.) for more information about the anniversary celebrations, Emoke B'Racz, or to set up an interview.

Bookstore and community hub looking for just the right new owner. Located on Main Street in Downtown Hendersonville, NC, The Fountainhead Bookstore seeks a caring and energetic person or team to lead it further into a prosperous future. With 6 in-house bookclubs, many private off-site events, and author events, there is a lot going on!

If interested, email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

William and all of us at SIBA are hoping you will be there, too. Sign up to attend #SIBA12 today!

Register here: [link]

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SIBA is looking for bookstore hosts for the Summer Series of Bookseller Revivals!

Would you like your store to host a Bookseller Revival this summer?
SIBA Directors will each be hosting a revival this summer. These are day-long gatherings directed at booksellers within a two hour drive of the host store. Leave home at 8am, revivals begin at 10am, include education, lunch, author meet & greet, and an opportunity to share your vision for SIBA’s future, and end at 3pm, putting you back home around 5pm. So we currently are scheduling Bookseller Revivals in Richmond, Chapel Hill, Atlanta, Greenville, SC, and New Orleans. Please email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. if you are interested in serving as a Revival Host Bookstore to get the details!

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Lady Banks Gets a New Pair of Shoes!

Both the newsletter and bookshelf have been updated.

The Lady Banks Commonplace Book newsletter is now a weekly email newsletter that includes the SIBA Bestseller list, our new Special to the Southern List, Events from Authors ‘Round the South, One Great Bookstore, where we feature a core member, and in the case where that member sells books online, we connect all of the book jackets in the Lady Banks newsletter for that week to that store. In that way we should be able to feature every store every two years and we hope you experience a Lady Banks bump!
We have also pumped up Lady Banks Bookshelf! Lady Banks Bookshelf has been in place for several years now but it is getting spruced up via our Authors Round the South Facebook page. SIBA has diligently increased its presence on Facebook via marketing and advertising to the point where there are over 5000 fans and an influence reach of over 2 million. The income from this re-launched Lady Banks Bookshelf will be used to extend the reach of ARTS to more and more readers. So be sure and participate in All Things ARTS as that is where Lady Banks looks for content and promotes you to readers on Facebook.

The SIBA Holiday Catalog is a value-rich benefit of SIBA membership. This full color gift catalog imprinted with your store logo and information that can be distributed to your customers and inserted into your hometown newspapers is absolutely free to SIBA Core Members in any quantity.

Participate in the Free Book Stimulus Plan. SIBA has shipped hundreds of books to SIBA Indie bookstore customers in the south. Don’t let your store fall of the list. Customers are looking for you.

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These Books will be in your Holiday Catalog!

2012 SIBA Book Award Finalists Announced

The judges on the Pulitzer committee may have been unable to make up their minds, but we don't think that will be a problem here in SIBA territory--announcing the 2012 SIBA Book Award Finalists!

NonfictionLions of the West by Robert Morgan (Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill)Praying for Strangers by River Jordan (Berkley)Upheaval in Charleston by Susan Millar Williams and Stephen G. Hoffius (University of Georgia Press)Working South by Mary Whyte (University of South Carolina Press)You Don’t Sweat Much for a Fat Girl by Celia Rivenbark (St. Martin’s Griffin)

PoetryAbandoned Quarry by John Lane (Mercer University Press)Head Off & Split: Poems (2011) by Nikky Finney (TriQuarterly Books/Northwestern University Press)Terroir by Robert Morgan (Penguin)Waking by Ron Rash (Hub City Press)

Young AdultThe Dark and Hollow Places by Carrie Ryan (Delacorte)Darwen Arkwright and the Peregrine Pact by A. J. Hartley (Razorbill)Magnolia League by Katie Crouch (Poppy Books)Where Things Come Back by John Corey Whaley (Simon and Schuster)

50+ SIBA stores participated in the Holiday Catalog Survey. SIBA appreciates the input. These stores plan to distribute more than 400,000 catalogs this year. When asked, “What do you wish was different about the holiday catalog?” booksellers provided a wide variety of good ideas and SIBA wants to update you on the changes that have come about as a result of the survey results!

FREE imprinting area INCREASED to 4 inches on the back cover and 3 ½ on the front

Continue to include ISBNs

Add "Coming in November" or "Pub date January" for any titles publishing after October

SIBA Book Awards will include alternate editions (paperback, e-book) when available

New single cover choice promoting books as gifts for any season

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Booksellers, let your groups know!

new organization pages at ReaderMeetWriter.com

As part of the expansion of the ARTS website and bookstore event calendar, SIBA is now opening up listings for literary arts organizations, libraries, schools, and other groups with a connection to the literary community in their area. As we expand this feature, organizations will be able to connect with SIBA stores, post information about their programming needs and list calls for volunteers.

In order to be listed, an organization must either be a member of SIBA, or be invited to be listed by a SIBA Bookseller or STARS author.

Booksellers: If there are literary groups in your area you think would be a good fit for the program, you can email SIBA their links and/or contact information: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

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Summer Harvest of OKRA!

Your next batch of Okra Pick Cards will be shipped the week of May 1!

Southern indie booksellers like their okra, and they love their southern books. The new list of Okra Picks-- great southern books, fresh off the vine-- has just been released. A dozen new books that all have two things in common: They are southern in nature, and there is a southern indie bookseller that wants everyone to read each one! Your next batch of Okra Pick Cards will be shipped the week of May 1!

The Summer Okra Picks List!
15 Seconds by Andrew Gross
William Morrow, July 2012
9780061655975
A Land More Kind Than Home by Wiley Cash
William Morrow, April 2012
9780062088147
Beach House Memories by Mary Alice Monroe
Gallery Books, May 2012
9781439170663
The Cove by Ron Rash
Ecco, April 2012
9780061804199
Desert Rose by Edythe Scott Bagley
University of Alabama Press, May 2012
9780817317652
Don't Ever Get Old by Daniel Friedman
Minotaur, May 2012
9780312606930
Hell or High Water by Joy Castro
Thomas Dunne Books, July 2012
9781250004574
The Palmetto and Its South Carolina Home by Jim Harrison
University of South Carolina Press, April 2012
9781611170498
Pete the Cat and His Four Groovy Buttons by Eric Litwin, illustrated by James Dean
HarperCollins, May 2012
9780062110589
Precious Bones by Mika Ashley-Hollinger
Delacorte Books for Young Readers, May 2012
9780385742191
Shine Shine Shine by Lydia Netzer
St. Martins Press, July 2012
9781250007070
Three Times Lucky by Sheila Turnage
Dial Books, May 2012
9780803736702

A Free Trip to #SIBA12 AND $150 in Co-op? How’s that?

It’s time to pick the next batch of Okra Picks! We are committed to the Okra Picks and want to assist you in selling these books. We have in place the Okra Picks Display Contest, the Okra Picks Co/Op Program, and the Okra Pick Cards. Be sure you are displaying the pick cards in the vertical display plastic beside your cash register. Take a photo of the display and email it to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Information about Okra Picks, along with marketing materials, guidelines, and nomination forms, can be found here:

Growing up Calvinist under communism taught me many things. Not all bad, either. I was always aware that we, human beings, need to be able to put other’s needs before our own at times. Frugality was not a sin, it was a requirement. Common sense and being able to create as we needed from what we had became a high art among us. We had no Joneses to keep up with; we were happy to be alive (after WWII, Recsk and “56 in Hungary) and have a garden, books, poetry, and each other.

It was a loving grandparent-filled childhood.

I had been lucky to be born into a family that was poised to educate the children.
Day after day Grandma kept us reading and studying.
That teaching from her remained with me
hence the ability to create run enjoy and maintain
cultural center for a town that
did not promise a rose garden at first
but I must say the mountains,
the architecture
and the affordability of the rent in 1982
made Asheville the place to become who we are today.

I have said many clever things to many interviewers
but the truth is I have been grateful and
blessed by the readers and writers who seem
to understand or feel the importance or the need
to make available a diverse literature
in any town anywhere USA.

I have held that philosophy and
realized that happiness and success
are really the same for me.
Success of the bookstores really comes
from the laughter and enjoyment
we experience every day in the store.
It is just enough for this person to go on

The writers and poets have been most generous
with their gift of words through the 30 years
they have been there
for Malaprop’s
for you,
the reader.

I once lived in a single-wide trailer on Main Street downtown Jefferson, South Carolina. The State House Representative for Jefferson was my landlord. There was no traffic light, a bank that “covered my checks” long before there was such a thing as overdraft, and a grocery store where I could “run a tab” that billed me monthly. The Bookmobile parked in the Post Office parking lot once every two weeks and the most excitement I had the near-year I was there was checking out a paperback copy of Psycho (never read, and never saw the movie) emblazoned with a warning: Do not read after dark! I carried it home, waited til the sun went down, read every word, took a shower, and went to bed! Oh what a night!

Lady Banks’ Trailer Park is a new addition to Lady Banks’ Commonplace Book e-newsletter and one we hope you will enjoy and participate in by sending us the best book trailers you come across. We will also be collecting them on our Pinterest Board – Lady Banks’ Trailer Park - http://pinterest.com/wjewell/lady-banks-trailer-park/

Also a new segment of Lady Banks’ Commonplace Books e-newsletter is the list of books that appear on SIBA’s Bestseller List each week yet do not appear on the current National Indie Bestseller List. Some southern favorites yet to appear on the national list include Okra Pick The Healing, An Altar in the World, Pete the Cat Rocking in my School Shoes, and many others. See the list every week in the Lady Banks newsletter.

Besides the thousands of consumer contacts SIBA has collected via the years of supporting the SIBA Holiday Catalog Survey and the more recent Free Book Stimulus Plan, via the ARTS Facebook Page, we have increased our coverage to a reach of nearly two million. Make sure your store is represented.

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Can people Find Your Bookstore?

Are you on the "Find a Bookstore" page? You need to be as over ONE HUNDRED authors are letting their readers know about you!

Gigi Amateau, Claire Cook, Alan Gratz, Susan Gregg Gilmore, Joshilyn Jackson, and Jim Minick are just a few of the writers that have the "Find an Indie Bookstore" badge on their websites that link to SIBA’s Find a Bookstore page. Be sure to join SIBA and get your store listed.

I know it is hard to believe that we will be turning to holiday catalog concerns before you know it. But that’s what I’m talking about. We need you to be looking to the future for great books that should be in the 2012 Holiday Catalog. We always include the SIBA Book Award Finalists so keep an eye out for the long ballot and remember that when you are voting. These will be among the books that will represent your store. http://www.sibaweb.com/home/catalog

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We Grow Good Books!

SIBA wants bookstores to Eat. Read. Display their Okra!

It’s time to pick the next batch of Okra Picks! We are committed to the Okra Picks and want to assist you in selling these books. We have in place the Okra Picks Display Contest, the Okra Picks Co/Op Program, and the Okra Pick Cards. Be sure you are displaying the pick cards in the vertical display plastic beside your cash register. Take a photo of the display and email it to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Information about Okra Picks, along with marketing materials, guidelines, and nomination forms, can be found here:

The Long List for the 2012 SIBA Book Award has just been released by the Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance. Totaling almost 120 different titles, the “Long List” includes every eligible title nominated for the award—representing the bookseller and reader favorites of 2011 in fiction, nonfiction, poetry, children’s, young adult and cooking categories. From Lisa Alther to Erica Wright, Mary Kay Andrews to Daniel Woodrell, the Long List is the ultimate southern reading list from the people who would know—southern indie booksellers.